Viscoelastic solution could revolutionise enclosure bonding
2 mins read
Tapes giant tesa has taken the chemistry involved in adhesive tape production forward a generation and come up with a radically different range of tapes that are particularly well suited to enclosure applications.
New patented technology introduced with tesa's ACXplus range is based on high capacity acrylates which have been developed for long term, constructive bonding on both indoor and outdoor applications.
By comparison with traditional bonding methods, this offers many advantages including clear full-surface bonding, extreme load capacity, stress dissipation, corrosion prevention and resistance to both weather and temperature.
The specially balanced elastic and viscous properties inherent in tesa ACXplus enable the dissipation of extreme physical stress in compensating for different rates of thermal expansion and contraction of different substrates.
This is particularly beneficial as enclosures can be fitted with dissimilar substrates and are often used in harsh environments. When two materials with different thermal elongations are bonded, the tape delivers an optimal high strength bond even where extreme temperature conditions or uneven or irregular surfaces are encountered.
The benefits of stress dissipation are available to this product up to three times its own thickness. A 0.5mm tape can compensate for expansion in bonded materials up to 1.5mm, it is claimed.
Powder coated materials such as enclosure bases or lids, tend to display a lower surface energy, making them hard-to-bond and creating high degrees of thermal elongation. Due to its formulation, the product is able to overcome these issues in providing an optimal high strength bond.
The tape's acrylic system provides optimal wetting and equal distribution of stress across the bond area, meaning no weak points are created and a powerful bond on materials with different characteristics is formed.
Practical alternative
For AV Innovate, a specialist supplier of machine tool guards and complete machine structures, when it came to finding an alternative to using spot welding to bond stiffeners into the panels of a machine guard enclosure, tesa ACXplus 7065 proved an ideal solution.
Spot welding generated heat spots which needed to be cleaned and prepared before the panels could be powder coated. Blemishes from the welded spots could also result in additional re-work having to be undertaken after completion of the powder coating process.
By removing these pre and post-preparatory steps whilst also enabling the stiffeners to be easily inserted after coating, tesa ACXplus 7065 streamlined the entire bonding process, creating productivity improvement and cost savings.
In this application, tesa ACXplus helps speed up the assembly process, enabling significant time savings on large production runs without the need for protective equipment or ventilation. And the immediate bond that the tape provides allows enclosure components to be moved easily and safely during different stages of production.
